Heyerdahl

American  

[hey-er-dahl] / ˈheɪ ərˌdɑl /

noun

1. Thor 1914–2002, Norwegian ethnologist and author.

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Heyerdahl British  

/ ˈhɛiərdaːl /

noun

1. Thor (tɔː). 1914–2002, Norwegian anthropologist. In 1947 he demonstrated that the Polynesians could originally have been migrants from South America, by sailing from Peru to the Pacific Islands of Tuamotu in the Kon-Tiki , a raft made of balsa wood. DNA testing in the late 1990s indicated that such a migration did not actually take place

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Example Sentences

Around the same time, adventurer Thor Heyerdahl wrote up his experiences crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a papyrus boat and noted his dismay at finding bits of tar and other garbage along the route.

From Slate • Sep. 12, 2016

“Washington Confidential” may have been an embarrassment, but it was also the nation’s best-selling nonfiction book the summer it was published, besting “A King’s Story” by the Duke of Windsor and “Kon-Tiki” by Thor Heyerdahl.

From Washington Post • Jan. 9, 2016

Why did Heyerdahl cross the ocean on a raft?

From The Guardian • Oct. 23, 2014

Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, the Norwegian directors of the Oscar-nominated Thor Heyerdahl adventure "Kon-Tiki," are helming the first two hours of "Marco Polo."

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2014

I saw a picture of anthropologist-explorer Thor Heyerdahl standing at the bow of Ra I, a papyrus reed boat which he and six others sailed across the Atlantic.

From Take Me for a Ride: coming of age in a destructive cult by Laxer, Mark Eliot